Picture painting kit



Nov. 15, 1966 G. A. MILNE 3,284,927

PICTURE PAINTING KIT Filed July 31, 1963 Inventbr GILBERT A. MILNE United States Patent 3,284,927 PICTURE PAINTING KIT Gilbert Alexander Milne, 32 Kingsway Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Filed July 31, 1963, Ser. No. 298,991 2 Claims. (Cl. 35-26) This invention relates to a picture painting kit for use by an untrained person in the production of fullycoloured paintings with that degree of art license which the person may possess natural ability to apply.

Prior picture painting kits for use by the general public are of a kind providing a plurality of tubes of different colour paint to be applied to a line representation of the image to be produced in colour on a canvas or a like rigid panel. The line delineated areas of the picture to be painted are marked as to colour by numbers corresponding to numbers on the receptacles, containers or tubes in which the colour is supplied. For example, in a particular small area of a desired shade of blue, a tube of blue paint numbered with the numeral 9 would be intended for application to all of those areas of the line reproduction containing the numeral 9. The user, therefore, paints by number and is not required to mix paint in order to achieve a desired colour with such prior colcuring or painting kits. There may be some small colour print indicating what the final appearance of the much larger picture ought to be. It will be evident that such prior painting kits, while offering the concept of painting by areas of colour, being a fundamental method of painting, nevertheless denies to the user the function of mixing colours, matching colours or applying artistic license to the colour or distribution of colour or intensity thereof in the various picture areas.

The photographic productions of underdeveloped black and white reproductions of scenic images on canvas or other rigid painting support has been known for many years. The amateur artist may employ such a reproduction only to the degree that a line image will define an image to be reproduced. There is no guidance from such mono-colour image as to colour area and in fact even with the guidance of a fully-coloured reproduction a mono-colour print will not reveal the shape of the areas of different colour, which are merely presented as varying shades of gray. For example, yellow and red may appear to be the same tone in a black and white reproduction and thus not distinct. It is this failing of such mono-colour unsaturated reproduction on canvas that has permitted such method of painting never to achieve any popularity except with some artists who already possess a substantial degree of training and who merely employ such photographic canvas for achieving the location of complex picture subject matter, especially of realistic detail, where, otherwise, extreme draftsmanship by way of outline would be required. The artist when using such gray reproduction has a mere outline of structure not useful as a colour guide or as a guide to the areas of colour and their shape which he fortunately is able to obtain from artistic training. Without artistic training a gray reproduction is of no effective assistance.

It is the main object of this invention to provide a pic- "ture painting kit enabling an untrained person to achieve a fully-coloured painting by artistic method, but without art training or special talent.

Having regard to the foregoing the invention generally relates to a full colour painting kit for the untrained production of a fully-coloured painting of one or more subjects with artistic license and comprising in combination at least two colour reproductions of the same image of each of such subjects, each having a discrete rigid support therefor of substantially the same physical size,

3,284,927 Patented Nov. 15, 1966 "ice one of said reproductions being fully colour saturated in all areas thereof, the other of said reproductions being substantially unsaturated as to colour in each of the corresponding colour areas thereof; separate painting media consisting of at least the primary colours, white and black, adapted to be mixed to form any of said image colours; and discrete instructions for mixing and applying colour for each subject.

The other objects of the invention will be evident from a study of the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a painting kit according to the invention, revealing the box contents and the cover thereof partially open.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the painting kit of FIGURE 1 with the sleeve cover thereof removed and the easel panel raised to reveal colour reproductions therein.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of FIGURES l and 2 showing fully saturated and unsaturated reproductions of the same image supported by the easel in a painting position.

Referring to the drawings the full colour painting kit 10 of the invention is supplied to the untrained person in the form of an open box structure 11 adapted to be enclosed by the sleeve telescoping cover 12 therefor. As shown in FIGURE 2 the box structure 11 preferably formed of a paper board material embodie a movable easel panel 13 in the form of the rigid rectangular sheet 14 preferably hinged at its lower edge 15 to an inner dividing wall 16. Foldable flange supports 17 extend from the side edges 18 of panel 14 to present downwardly and rearwardly extending lock tabs 19 to accommodating slots 20 of walls 21 of box structure 11. In this way the easel panel 13 may be swung upwardly from its collapsed position revealed in FIGURE 1 to the easel position indicated in FIGURE 3. The open box structure 11 presents its rearward compartment 22 for accessibility of saturated and unsaturated colour reproductions 23 and 24 therein and painting materials 25 in forward compartment 26 thereof.

By way of descriptive example, herein, numeral 27 designates a fully saturated colour reproduction of a sub ject such as a scenic view. By virtue of the requirements of rules applying to patent drawings it is not possible to illustrate shapes of area of colour which would occur in a coloured photographic reproduction other than by way, of example, to designate area 28 in narrowly spaced horizontal hatched lines 29 as intended to represent an area of blue sky of fully saturated blue colour and of a particular tone of blue. Again, it is not possible to eifectively show or reveal the application of a second colour, such as green, to the tree like shaped areas 30. In any event, it will be realized that the reproduction 27 will be a fully saturated colour print of a subject, preferably on a rigid support such as a card, or the like, of a predetermined particular size. There is provided according to this invention at least one second reproduction 31 of the same image or scene as reproduction 27 but in substantially unsaturated colour. Thus area 28 is represented by widely spaced hatched lines 32 to indicate the colour thereof appears greatly faded or unsaturated as to colour as compared with the colour of the same area 28 in the reproduction 27. Likewise, areas 30 of reproduction 31 are substantially unsaturated. In fact the entire image representation in the reproduction 31 is faded to such a degree at to have a washed-out appearance with sufficient colour strength only to enable an identification of colour areas. This is preferably accomplished by preparing a very low contrast high key weak colour print from which conventional colour plates are made or the printing inks with conventional plates may be provided in weak colour saturation or, further, a printing press can be run controllably substantially dry to give a weak or unsaturated print. Other methods of achieving the objective will be apparent to skilled persons in the image reproduction arts. In any event the unsaturated colour reproduction is provided on a suitable firm support 33 such as canvas, rigid card or other surface means adapted for the application of oil tempera or other painting medium. It will be observed that the matched reproductions 27 and 31 are adapted to be mounted in side by side relationship, being all of the same size, on the movable easel panel by means of struck tabs 34 and 35 therein arranged in parallel spaced apart rows and inwardly directed substantially as shown.

The colouring media comprises a plurality of paint tubes 36 or other containers for a suitable painting medium in at least each of the primary colours and, in addition, white and black. Also, other usual equipment such as brushes, palette and the like will be provided as required. It is important to this inven-tion, however, that the kit as described herein includes in combination printed instructions 37 which describe the manner of mixing colours and the method of applying such colours to the reproduction 31.

The instructions 37 are prepared as a discrete set of instructions for each painting subject supplied with the kit and are prepared by having one or more artists mix suitable colours from the media tubes 35 and apply same to the reproduction 31. It is, therefore, possible to instruct a certain section to be painted first and to describe how to mix a colour to match the fully saturated original reproduction 27 such as holding a brush load of mixed colour next to the colour to be reproduced of the reproduction 27. In this way the untrained is introduced to the artistic method of painting by areas of colour rather than drawing with paint. The user is permitted a freedom of merging adjacent areas of colour or simplyfying the colouring pattern according to taste, thus being introduced to artistic expression through introduced simplification, while at the same time being naturally drawn into correct methods of colour mixing and matching and order of application to achieve colour control. In this way the artistic method is adopted in the most direct and simple way without calling upon any talent of the user.

I claim:

1. A full colour painting kit for the untrained production of a fully coloured painting of one or more subjects with artistic license and comprising in combination: a paint box structure and a moveable easel panel therein; at least two colour reproductions of the same image of each of said subjects, one of said reproductions being fully colour saturated in all areas thereof, theother of said reproductions being substantially unsaturated as to colour in each of the corresponding colour areas thereof; separate painting media consisting of at least the primary colours, white and black, adapted to be mixed to form any of the colours of said colour areas; discrete instruction means for each subject image describing a preferred manner for mixing and applying said painting media to said unsaturated reproduction; and means on said easel panel for holding a saturated and an unsaturated colour reproduction of the same subject in side by side relationship thereof.

2. A full colour painting kit for the untrained production of a fully coloured painting of one or more subjects with artistic license and comprising in combination; a paint box structure and a moveable easel panel therein; at least two colour reproductions of the same image of each of said subjects, each having a discrete rigid support thereof of substantially the same physical size, one of said reproductions being fully colour saturated in all areas therefore, the other of said reproductions being .substantially unsaturated as to colour in each of the corresponding colour areas thereof; separate painting media consisting of at least the primary colours, white and black, adapted to be mixed to form any of the colours of said colour areas; discrete instruction means for each subject image describing a preferred manner for mixing and applying said painting media to said unsaturated reproduction; and means on said easel panel for holding a saturated and an unsaturated colour reproduction of the same subject in side by side relationship thereof.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 802,031 10/1905 Eschenbach 35-26 1,683,827 9/1928 Ingram 35-62 X 1,821,252 9/1931 Woods 35-26 X 1,901,861 3/1933 Baker 35-26 X 2,712,189 7/1955 Grossman 35-26 X 2,954,615 10/1960 Brown 35-26 FOREIGN PATENTS 344,685 3/ 1931 Great Britain. 1,012,688 7/1952 France.

EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

JEROME SCHNALL, H. S. SKOGQUIST,

Assistant Examiners. 

1. A FULL COLOR PAINTING KIT FOR THE UNTRAINED PRODUCTION OF A FULLY COLOURED PAINTINING OF ONE OR MORE SUBJECTS WITH ARTISTIC LICENSE AND COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: A PAINT BOX STRUCTURE AND A MOVEABLE EASEL PANEL THEREIN; AT LEAST TWO COLOUR REPRODUCTIONS OF THE SAME IMAGE OF EACH OF SAID SUBJECTS, ONE OF SAID REPRODUCTIONS BEING FULLY COLOUR SATURATED IN ALL AREAS THEREOF, THE OTHER OF SAME REPRODUCTIONS BEING SUBSTANTIALLY UNSATURATED AS TO COLOUR IN EACH OF THE CORRESPONDING COLOUR AREAS THEREOF; SEPARATE PAINTING MEDIA CONSISTING OF AT LEAST THE PRIMARY COLOURS, WHITE AND BLACK, ADAPTED TO BE MIXED TO FORM ANY OF THE COLOURS OF SAID COLOUR AREAS; DISCRETE INSTRUCTION MEANS FOR EACH SUBJECT IMAGE DESCRIBING A PREFERRED MANNER FOR MIXING AND APPLYING SAID PAINTING MEDIA TO SAID UNSATURATED REPRODUCTION; AND MEANS ON SAID EASEL PANEL FOR HOLDING A SATURATED AND AN UNSATURATED COLOUR REPRODUCTION OF THE SAME SUBJECT IN SIDE BY SIDE RELATIONSHIP THEREOF. 